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elcome to the Digital Meltd0wn Music Blog. The aim of this blog is to introduce the readers to music that is out of print, commercially unavailable, released under a creative commons license, or with approval by the featured artist. The majority of the music posted here would be considered underground. Don't let that fool you into thinking that the music featured here might be any less enjoyable than that of the mainstream artists you hear on the radio, as this couldn't be further from the truth. Please keep in mind that the majority of the artists that appear on this blog, along with their respective record labels, are not wealthy and need your support. If you enjoy the material that you find here, please support the artists/labels by purchasing their material afterwards. If you are an artist/label that would prefer to have your material removed from this blog, simply leave me a comment, and I would be more than happy to promptly remove the offending post. In addition to running this blog, I also work on a few other projects during my spare time. You can find links to those, as well as a few other important links associated with Digital Meltd0wn in the menu bar above.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

The Mummies - Never Been Caught



Someone requested that I post another Mummies album a while back, but I can't remember who it was now. So here's 'Never Been Caught', which should fill that Mummies craving for the time being. I wasn't very fond of the cover for the 2002 reissue with the bonus tracks, so the cover you see is from the original LP.

At a time when a lot of garage rock bands sounded like they were drowning in a sea of paisley and nehru affectation, the Mummies flipped the whole scene the bird with one of the most gloriously ugly garage albums ever, 1992's Never Been Caught. Sounding like it was recorded in an acoustically untreated basement on equipment that might have been state of the art in 1947, Never Been Caught is one long blast of monophonic skwak, with the needles almost perpetually in the red as four guys in mummy outfits bash out crude '60s-style rock about beer, babes, and open hostility on battered gear which was doubtless discarded by tone-deaf teenagers who got over their 15-minute delusion of possible future rock stardom in 1966. In case you haven't figured it out by now, this album is, quite simply, a work of genius; Billy Childish was once quoted as saying the Mummies were nearly as good as the Damned in 1977, and while the two bands don't have much in common musically, the Mummies certainly shared the enthusiastic carelessness and "Smash It Up" energy with the Damned Damned Damned-era punks, as they set out to blow up amps and knock over drum kits just cause it seemed like a fun thing to do. And after listening to it, damned if you don't want to join in -- Never Been Caught is a perfect reminder that once upon a time rock & roll was considered dangerous just for being fast, loud, and snotty, and if the Mummies never quite became the new leaders of America's juvenile delinquents, it's sure not because they didn't try. In 2002, Telstar Records marked the tenth anniversary of this album's release by issuing Never Been Caught on compact disc for the first time; hard to say how they managed to blackmail the CD-loathing former Mummies into consenting to such a thing, but thankfully the disc (augmented with five bonus tracks) sounds just as flat and distorted as the original LP...nice to know some things never change.
(Year of Relase: 1992)

Track List:
1. Your Ass (Is Next in Line)
2. Stronger Than Dirt
3 Little Miss Tee-N-T
4 Come on Up
5 Sooprize Package for Mr. Mineo
6 Rosie
7 Shot Down
8 The Ballad of Iron Eyes Cody
9 Skinny Minnie
10 She Lied
11 The Red Cobra #9
12 The Frisko Freeze
13 Justine
14 Mariconda's a Friend of Mine
15 The Thing from Venus
16 Shut Yer Mouth
17 Jezebel
18 (You Must Fight to Live) On the Planet of the Apes (Bonus Track)
19 Whitecaps (Bonus Track)
20 I'm Down (Bonus Track)
21 Your Love (Bonus Track)
22 Uncle Willie (Bonus Track)

Download: The Mummies - Never Been Caught (53.5MB)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was me who requested this a while ago ; ).And i have to say..wow.Never been caught is just what the doctor ordered.Primitive garage rock at its best.Minimal,filthy and unsophisticated.Every track is a winner.Essential.

Zer0_II said...

Ah it was you :) I haven't forgotten about posting 'Death by Unga Bunga'. I'll try to get that posted within the next week or so.

Dgrador said...

Arguably the best-ever rendition of Jezebel.

Anonymous said...

i love this. great blog. i love the vriety here. seriously, first day seeing it and im a huge fan already.

Anonymous said...

Never heard The Mummies, except the track Test Drive on Children of Nuggets. Glad to see yer return.
Dickerstaph

Anonymous said...

The Mummies have a new fan. Many thanks